Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Bill Maher has a great column at Salon about the right's constant and annoying use of "elite" as an epithet. This has driven me nuts for years. They don't make an irony meter strong enough to resist watching Dan Quayle, who has never had to work a day in his life because he comes from an immensely wealthy family of media moguls, talk about the "cultural elite" and how they're undermining God, grandmas, fluffy kittens and apple pie. Like "liberal" and "humanist" and "family values" (and yes, increasingly, "neo-con" as well), the word "elite" has become nothing but a buzzword for THEM, any THEM that the listener wants to fill the empty vessel with. I am an unabashed elitist; the alternative to elitism is mediocrity, and it's mediocrity, unfortunately, that truly drives America's political system. A long excerpt from Maher's column below the fold:
Say it loud: I'm elite and proud! The right-wing crusade to demonize elites has paid off. Now the country's run by incompetents who make mediocrity a job requirement and recruit from Pat Robertson's law school. New rule: Now that liberals have taken back the word liberal, they also have to take back the word "elite." By now you've heard the constant right-wing attacks on the "elite," or as it's otherwise known, "hating." They've had it up to their red necks with the "elite media." The "liberal elite." Who may or may not be part of the "Washington elite." A subset of the "East Coast elite." Which is influenced by "the Hollywood elite." So basically, unless you're a shitkicker from Kansas, you're with the terrorists. If you played a drinking game in which you did a shot every time Rush Limbaugh attacked someone for being "elite" you'd almost be as wasted as Rush Limbaugh.I don't get it: In other fields -- outside of government -- elite is a good thing, like an elite fighting force. Tiger Woods is an elite golfer. If I need brain surgery, I'd like an elite doctor. But in politics, elite is bad -- the elite aren't down-to-earth and accessible like you and me and President Shit-for-Brains. But when the anti-elite crowd demonizes the elite, what they're actually doing is embracing incompetence. Now, I know what you're thinking: That doesn't sound like our president -- ignoring intelligence.
You know how whenever there's a major Bush administration scandal it always traces back to some incompetent political hack appointment and you think to yourself, "Where are they getting these screw-ups from?" Well, now we know: from Pat Robertson. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. Take Monica Goodling, who before she resigned last week because of the U.S. attorneys scandal, was the third most powerful official in the Justice Department of the United States. Thirty-three, and though she had never even worked as a prosecutor, she was tasked with overseeing the job performance of all 95 U.S. attorneys. How do you get to be such a top dog at 33? By acing Harvard, or winning scholarship prizes? No, Goodling did her undergraduate work at Messiah College -- home of the "Fighting Christies," who wait-listed me, the bastards -- and then went on to attend Pat Robertson's law school.
I'm not kidding, Pat Robertson, the man who said gay people at DisneyWorld would cause "earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor," has a law school. It's called Regent. Regent University School of Law, and it shares a campus with Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network studios. It's the first time ever that a TV network spun off a law school. And that's all America needs -- more Christians and more lawyers. You see, years ago Pat became concerned that our legal system was coddling criminals, forgiving them instead of meting out that Old Testament "eye for an eye" justice Jesus Christ never shuts up about. So Pat did what any red-blooded, Hindu-hating, gay-baiting, glue-sniffing Christian would do: He started his own law school. And what kid wouldn't want to attend? It's three years and you only have to read one book. The school says its mission is to create an army of evangelical lawyers, integrating the Bible and public policy, and producing graduates that provide "Christian leadership to change the world." Presumably from round back to flat.
U.S. News and World Report, which does the definitive ranking of colleges, lists Regent as a tier-four school, which is the lowest score it gives. It's not a hard school to get into. You have to renounce Satan and draw a pirate on a matchbook. This is for the people who couldn't get into the University of Phoenix.
But there's more! As there inevitably is with the Bush administration. Turns out she's not the only one. Since 2001, 150 graduates of Regent University have been hired by the Bush administration. And people wonder why things are so screwed up. Hell, we probably invaded Iraq because one of these clowns read the map wrong. Forget religion for a second, we're talking about a top Justice Department official who went to a college founded by a TV host. Would you send your daughter to Maury Povich University? And if you did, would you expect her to get a job at the White House? I'd be surprised if she got a job on the "Maury" show.
Comments
That's classic!
Posted by: Jeff Hebert | April 16, 2007 11:20 AM
So Pat Robertson's law school's mission is to subvert the Constitution of the United States. Not really shocking at all.
In regards to the article, right on Bill. There are times I find Bill annoying in the extreme, but he's dead on with this. And guess what? There's even a motivational poster for the elite!
Posted by: Jason I. | April 16, 2007 11:38 AM
That article was pretty good, he makes a great point. Aren't we supposed to love America's "best and brightest"? I guess not if they're liberal hippy commies.
Posted by: Stuart Coleman | April 16, 2007 11:40 AM
There are several things at work in the "elite" meme. First of all, there is one sense in which "media elite" is a valid epithet, but it's not the one usually used by right wingers. There's clearly a distinction to be made between your everyday beat reporters and your Russerts and Matthews. The latter do seem to have identifiable "class" interests, given their near unanimity on many issues, no matter what their supposed position on the political spectrum or what public opinion might say. The right tends to lump the two together, so anyone who writes for anything that isn't Fox News larger than the St Petersburg Times becomes a "media elite".
Secondly there are two main axes along which the "elite" meme operates. First of all there is straightforward anti-intellectualism, manifesting itself in disdain for genuine experts of all kinds, and science itself as a methodology for expanding knowledge. Then there's the class resentment of rural/suburban vs urban, and southern vs northern. Despite the fact that politicians pander far more to suburban and rural voters than urban ones, despite the fact that the electoral college is rigged in favour of rural and against densely populated states, despite the fact that towns subsidise rural and suburban infrastructure with their taxes, the elite meme allows them to feel like they're the only ones getting shafted by politics and deflects the blame from where it truly lies.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | April 16, 2007 11:40 AM
Gotta give the man credit..he knows how to rant!!
Cheers.
Posted by: Fastlane | April 16, 2007 11:48 AM
I've always been a fan of the book In Defense of Elitism by William A. Henry.
Posted by: Will E. | April 16, 2007 12:22 PM
Bill Maher is usually dead on. He's the man!
Posted by: Ric | April 16, 2007 12:35 PM
Maher delivered this rant, pretty much verbatim as in the Salon version, on his HBO show last Friday night.
Posted by: Dave K | April 16, 2007 12:35 PM
"Academic elites" in the social sciences refer to "elites" in a political-economic sense as those who have disproportionate political and/or economic power. Republicans and also often Democrats cater to business elites. Anybody who has access to the air-waves like Limbaugh and/or Fox News cannot escape the "elite" label either. Its like the Pot calling the kettle black.
Posted by: Sheldon | April 16, 2007 12:51 PM
Will-
I am a major fan of Henry's book, which I highly recommend to my readers.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | April 16, 2007 1:14 PM
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture,"
Pastor Ray Mummert, Dover PA
Posted by: Ferrous Patella | April 16, 2007 1:16 PM
Seeing as they are Very Christian lawyers,
wouldn't the closest a lawyer could get to following Christ's teachings be to take a job as a public defender? How many Regent grads take those positions compared to grads of other law schools?
Posted by: hibob | April 16, 2007 2:49 PM
No justice I tells ya. I went to a law school that vacillates between the top and second tiers. It was hard to get in and a challenge to finish. I graduated in the top third of my class. I also have an undergraduate degree in Physics with honors. After two years as an assistant DA with the highest conviction rate in my state for DWI's, I applied for an assistant U.S. attorney position. That was over two years ago.... I'm still waiting for a call.....
And some yahoo who couldn't even get accepted to my school was third in the Justice Department???? The Universe is a mysterious place.
Posted by: π | April 16, 2007 2:52 PM
Interesting development re Regent:
Posted by: khan | April 16, 2007 3:18 PM
Its like the Pot calling the kettle black.
It's more than that though-- it's the Pot calling the Kettle black specifically to deflect attention from the Pot's own blackness. The Fox News Corporation can avoid people noticing that it is crucial both as part and a tool of the elite in America, by constantly pointing at relatively powerless groups and individuals and ceaselessly accusing them of being elite. Similarly, people like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and David Brooks rail relentlessly against effete New York intellectuals, and thus nobody notices that Hannity, O'Reilly and Brooks are all professional-intellectual dandies who live in New York.
Something else worth noting is that:
the word "elite" has become nothing but a buzzword for THEM, any THEM that the listener wants to fill the empty vessel with
This sort of THEM-targeting is essentially elitist behavior; the way right-wingers use "elitist" is a wholly elitist act. "Elites" or "elitists" here simply refers to a group that red staters / fox news watchers / fox news employees consider themselves better than.
Posted by: Coin | April 16, 2007 3:40 PM
It's the first time ever that a TV network spun off a law school.
So Columbia University Law School isn't a spin-off of the Tiffany Network?? Then how do you explain their mascot, the Fightin' Andy Rooneys???
Posted by: Grumpy | April 16, 2007 4:34 PM
Speaking of rants, Lee Iacocca has one on Bush. It's an excerpt from his new book WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE. You can read that excerpt on-line.
In the excerpt at least Iacocca absolutely reams Bush. It's worth a read and even a quote or two.
If my coding doesn't work above the url is
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17516.htm
Posted by: Keanus | April 16, 2007 5:32 PM
Could be worse, Regent could be a medical school.
Posted by: mg | April 16, 2007 6:47 PM
ROFL mg. Small mercies.
We could also take some comfort in the fact that so few students pass the bar...Well, I would if I actually thought that would prevent the littel creeps from getting appointed.
Posted by: Leni | April 16, 2007 9:55 PM
Hey, haven't I seen many advertisements for The University of Pheonix in the sidebars of ScienceBlogs?
What would the obvious logic to this be? Do they ask their constituency to accept the belief that ignorance is equal to education?
This could be just as obvious as it sounds -- given the people that it's directed at -- that they are asking them to accept that the US has a class distinction and that they're being chumped by the overclass. While they were out cleaning toilets, the propellerheads were down at the middle school telling their kids that God is dead and that gay sex was not only OK but desirable.
Posted by: Ted | April 16, 2007 10:22 PM
When the right talks about elites it is always targeted toward the professorate and the intelligentsia, conspicuously pardoning the corporate and financial sectors from the label. And such can be explained easily by their relative lack of influence in the former category and overwhelming influence in the latter.
It's essentially another way of attacking your political opponents. Like Dembski recently prattling on about the "secular elite" when talking about the "framing" paper of Mooney and Nisbet.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | April 16, 2007 11:36 PM
Curious that the religious right would be so hardcore against he "elite". It seems like valuing envy over ambition, which is the normal modus operandi for socialism, not the red-blodded capitalism that they (supposedly) advocate. I wonder if they're recycling some of their old Dixiecrat material?
Posted by: James | April 17, 2007 1:13 AM
Seems like some of you posters were rejected by Regent and are angry because of it. Maybe you could convince Bill Maher to start his own law school. He could then train lawyers on how to defend people who are bigoted against Christians.
Posted by: Will | April 17, 2007 6:34 AM
When edited for clueless idiocy the above paragraph reads as follows:
[...]valuing compassion over amibition[...]
Posted by: Matthew Young | April 17, 2007 7:11 AM
That last Will wasn't me! I think I'm going to go by Throat Warbler Mangrove from now on.
Posted by: Will | April 17, 2007 8:28 AM
Um, except for the fact that not being clever enough for Regent pretty much precludes the possession of skills like reading and writing which are necessary to enjoy this blog.
Posted by: Matthew Young | April 17, 2007 11:53 AM
Well, despite this particular column, it seems that Maher has a rather flexible attitude towards the "elites", as demonstrated in the following archived post by Orac:
http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/03/is-bill-maher-really-that-ignorant_07.html
Anyway, I like the general message he gives, I just wish he weren't such a hypocrite and flake.
Posted by: T. Bruce McNeely | April 17, 2007 8:51 PM
Maher is definitely a mixed bag. On the other hand Dan Quayle has every reason to disparage the intellectual elites -- it's one club he can not buy his way into.
Posted by: Trinifar | April 18, 2007 3:20 AM
"Elite" can mean many things. In the context of "elite" being something your not supposed to like, it means a CLOSED group of powerful people that seek to control you. That's what "elite" means to the people using it as an epithet. It has nothing to do with excellence and everything to do with what people like the Bush family are all about.
And Bill Maher is a dumbass. He is funny 1% of the time, he calls himself a libertarian, but he's all for the CIA and big government putting a tax on CO2 emissions.
I agree with him in this article, that we should take bake the word "elite" to mean something good instead of something bad, though.
Posted by: Jesus | April 18, 2007 10:07 PM